#some of these are. only for specific traits others apply in multiple ways

[genderkoolaid]

i am genuinely confused by something you said in your joan of arc post & i would love if you could clarify. you said "women afab can be trans. men amab can be trans." i understand how that applies to intersex people, who may be assigned a sex they identify with but have other sex characteristics that they get dysphoria from. or theyre assigned as one sex but once puberty hit they developed far more traits of the other sex, so they had to transition back to what they used to be. i understand those scenarios. but as far as we know, joan of arc wasnt intersex & you dont bring up intersex in your post. how can a non-intersex person transition to something they already are & have been for their entire life? changing how one presents, like changing their style of clothes to better suit their gender & personality, doesnt count as "transitioning" imo, cis people do that aaall the time, multiple times throughout their lives. so what do you actually mean by this??

So my definition of trans is very much inspired by Leslie Feinberg's definition of trans(gender): An umbrella term for "everyone who challenges the boundaries of sex and gender," in which ze specifically includes cross-dressing and GNC people who are men AMAB and women AFAB. I would define trans as being inclusive of anyone who queers sex and/or gender.

In my humble nonbinary opinion, we way over-rely on the idea of trans as being about identifying as a gender that isn't your assigned sex. I, for example, was assigned female and identify as (amongst other genders) a woman, but my womanhood is very much trans. For one, I was on T for two years and intend to get bottom surgery, but I was also alienated from typical cis girlhood for my entire life and my womanhood is inherently tied to me also being a man and abinary. My womanhood is not cisnormative at all.

"Woman" and "man" (and male and female) are all constructs. Just because someone may call themself a woman, and have been assigned female at birth, does not mean they identify as the same kind of woman that society expects and demands them to. There are different ways of constructing womanhood. The "gender identity that isn't AGAB" definition was built on the idea of trans people as going from one binary point to the other, with the assumption that "woman" and "man" are still Real Things with one natural meaning. Attempts at being nb-inclusive have basically just said "well nonbinary isn't a gender assigned at birth, so its trans!" which is completely true, but it also ignores all the nonbinary and genderqueer people whose genders are more nuanced than that.

On Jeanne d'Arc specifically, I actually have some relevant quotes on this:

(from Vested Interests: Crossdressing and Cultural Anxiety and Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of Arc respectively)

This is why I included that line: because we often assume, in our exorsexism, that a historical figure must identify as a man/woman (cis), as the opposite (trans), or maybe as neither, but those are the only options. We are still limiting ourselves and these historical figures' by limiting how we understand gender and genderqueerness. To Jeanne, being a cross-dressing female virgin soldier could be its own gender, something different than the genders of cisnormative mothers and nuns.

& as a note: I feel like, a lot of the time, non-intersex people in the community will make exceptions for intersex people (like "well, intersex people can be transfemmascs/male lesbians/etc" but no one else!!!") which. doesn't actually seem that great for intersex people? Like aside from assuming that these genderqueer experiences can only be had by intersex people, it also means that if you identify that way, you must Prove that you are Allowed to be doing that, by both outing yourself as intersex and arguing that you are intersex Enough.

[cy-cyborg]

Hi! I'm trying to include autistic and/or ADHD characters in my stories but I'm afraid I'm not doing a good job. I'm neurotypical, so I fear I might find myself using stereotypes and that's not my intention. Do you have any tips? Thank you in advance, have a nice day!

Ok, so personally I have a lot of trouble coming up with advice for auDHD (autism + ADHD) because, well, the spectrum of experience is so large and there isn't a lot of consistency within the community in regards to what is considered good representation vs just stereotypes. There's a few outliers, like every one I know has agreed Sia's movie "Music" is offensively bad lol, but pretty much everything else I can think of is less clear cut. Generally though, if you want examples of media portrayals of autism done well, avoid anything from or connected to Autism Speaks. They are not a reliable source.

I only really have 3 suggestions:

decide what level of support your character needs. Support needs for autism are variable and they can fluctuate throughout a person's life, but typically, people will fit into one of 3 categories. In Australia it's Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 with Level 1 is defined as generally being low-support needs, and level 3 being generally very high support needs. Of course, it's a spectrum, so there's massive amounts of variably person-to-person, but as an author, it can be a good idea to pick one of the levels, because you'll typically find more specific information about how autism will present.

Find content creators (as in multiple) with both Autism and ADHD. It's a good idea to listen to the community directly, but when you're writing an AuDHD character in particular, you do need to be aware that those autism and ADHD can play into one another or in some cases, can cancel some traits of each other out (kind of). But it'll be different from person to person. They are very distinct disabilities, but they have some unusual interactions it's vital to be aware of. Ideally, you'll also want to try find auDHD people in the same age range and who are the same gender as your character. Different generations and age groups will treat AuDHD differently, and while It's not a hard and fast thing, both autism and ADHD manifest differently in men and women because of how we are socialized and raised (this applies to trans and nonbinary people too, they'll typically take on traits associated with the gender they were usually raised as, but not always. Personally, I showed a mix of both, but my traits do align more with the typical presentation of AuDHD in girls). Just a little side note, not every person creating content about Autism/ADHD is open to working with authors. Find content creators, listen to them, but don't ask them about your character specifically unless they have stated somewhere that they're open to helping with that kind of thing.

Find sensitivity readers and sensitivity consultants for autism and ADHD. A sensitivity reader goes over your manuscript once the draft is done, but consultants help you from even earlier on in the process. If you're worried about not doing the community justice, this is the best way to go. People online like myself can offer generalized advice, but SR's and SC's will be able to go much more in-depth with you and help you fix moment-to-moment issues in your story.

Some additional things to be mindful of as well when looking up further resources:

Both Autism and ADHD can make it difficult to regulate tone and emotion. This means you are likely going to get information from the community at some point that might not be easy to hear and you're not going to like how its presented to you lol. They're going to be blunt and maybe even "rude". It's not personal (usually lol) but don't expect everyone to be polite, and don't only take criticism from those who are. Tone and emotional regulation is literally a part of both disabilities for a lot of us, and this is a topic a lot of us have strong feelings about to begin with.

I mentioned it already, but avoid taking advice from anything connected to or directly from Autism Speaks.

Social media tends to favor low-support-needs folks, so you'll find info about them, from them, much easier. Even if you're writing a LSN character, be mindful of that bias

Be wary of anyone claiming autism/ADHD is a superpower unironically. This is one of those things that's said by a lot of lower support needs folks and is often a warning sign that they might hold harmful beliefs about other parts of the community and could give you bad info. Just again, something to be aware of when researching.

[cerastes]

Arknights God, how do I use Reed the Flame Shadow? I got her and I've leveled her but I think I'm missing something, because it doesn't seem like I'm doing the damage she's supposed to be doing.

So step one is that we need to stop with the Arknights God thing because I'm flattered that you and others have a high opinion of my gameplay advice but it also makes me look like a narcissistic jackass. I appreciate the compliment and I'm happy my advice helps, but to everyone not familiar with the whole "I like to play a heel clown character on my blog for funsies with my friends" will think I'm actually addicted to the scent of my flatulence and the rhythm of my own words. It makes answering these a tad awkward.

Step two is understanding that Reed' skill selection, and which skill is the correct answer to any given issue, has a lot of factors going for it, more than the majority of Operators. If you use Cantabile, for example, you know that both of her skills are bangers, and while they have their respective jobs, they are not hard-slotted into these. Reed's S2 and S3 are similar in this regard. You'll be ignoring S1.

Before we get into that, though, here's some fundamentals about the Flame Shadow: You position them differently from other Medics and most other units. A good Reed tile is one where she has both enemies and allies in her range, so, if you placing her at a front, you'll want her to be a bit behind, but not fully behind, your line of engagement. She needs to be able to attack in order to heal, and her allies need to be in her range in order to get healed. This may sound obvious, but it needs to be taken into account. She's not a Marksman or a Medic, she's her own beast. Another thing that needs to be taken into account is that her healing comes specifically from dealing HP damage to enemies, not barriers. Greytails and the Rat King, for example, have shields that must be broken with Arts damage before exposing the succulent flesh within, right? Well, until the shield breaks, Reed is not giving anyone any succor and they might in fact just explode because while she's dealing damage to their shields, it doesn't count as valid damage for her healing. Keep this in mind so you don't run out of sustain while fighting shielded enemies, since shielded enemies tend to also have high attack. The Final Reed Essential regards her Cinders (AKA Firebrand), which she always has a chance to apply with her attacks and skills (with S3 guaranteeing it): The way it works is that, if an attack would apply Cinder, it applies it before the attack resolves, meaning, the Arts Fragility will be in effect and that attack will already be dealing 30%(32% with Potentials) extra damage off rip. Or, in other words, you don't have to apply Cinder and then start capitalizing on it on the next attack. Arts Fragility, by the way, stacks multiplicatively with Fragile, and they count as different debuffs, despite the similarity in name.

You made it past the tutorial, now let's tackle 1-1:

S2, or as Harvard scholars call it, the Spitroast, is a damn strong skill. For the purposes of this post, I'll be using the M3 versions of the skills. Spitroast grants two allies, with Melee tile priority, 3 fireballs that'll deal 240% of Reed's Attack as damage to enemies they touch every 1.5 seconds, with this 1.5 second timer applying only for each unique target. The fireballs do in fact have a hitbox, so if there's enemies on either side of the fireball unit, you'll trigger two fireballs at once, one for the enemy on one side, and another for the other. Each fireball then takes 1.5 seconds to refresh (they'll look darkened around the Operator) and once they are a vibrant orange again, it means they are ready to explode again. Each time these fireballs deal damage, they'll heal their Operators as per Reed's trait (so 120% of her Attack), and each fireball has a chance to inflict Cinder as per any of Reed's attacks. You can test this yourself by putting fireballs on Operators so they hit enemies outside her attack range, and you'll see that they do in fact also have a chance to inflict Cinder. Be mindful that the fireball's instance of damage counts as a Reed instance of damage! This means that for the purposes of Counter effects, it is Reed that's the source of the damage, so for Spike Chests, Reed WILL receive the reflected damage, and for The Last Knight, Reed WILL freeze if the fireballs hit him, etc etc. The lane-holding application of this skill is that you can grant your cornerstone immense Arts damage and healing independent of everything else they have going for themselves, including through Status effects like Freeze or Stun, as the fireballs are independent entities separate from the Operator. So if Mudrock gets stunned by Nervous Impairment and has sweet dreams of beautiful rocks that go on adventures with her, she's not completely helpless, as the fireballs will keep shredding enemies while she's in dreamland. This actually leads us to the next point: Fireballs cannot be placed on Summons, so if you had dreams of making the sickest Stainless turret surrounded by industrial flames or picturesque mindblasts about Ling's Great Thunderer's surrounded by godly plumes of cleansing conflagration, well, stop being silly and come back to reality, also rent and student debts are due. Fireballs can be placed on 'Enmity' Operators, such as Musha (ie. Akafuyu) and Juggernauts (ie. Mudrock), but they won't receive the healing from each of their hits, as the healing is mechanically counted as direct healing, thus, they may not benefit from it. Well, at least they can always take a whiff of Lena's wonderful fragrances instead. With all this in mind, we get to the Spitroast part of the Spitroast: If you jail an enemy (sandwiching them between two Operators) and use Reed's S2 to give them her mighty balls, now that enemy is getting assblasted by both sets of balls, so a whooping 480% of Reed's attack as damage, which in turn is very likely to diagnose them with Cinder due to how many times they'll be taking Reed damage, so that final damage is now also increased by another fat 30%, in addition to being inflicted with Cinder's ATK -20%, so your engager is safer as well, on top of being healed a lot. So, in practice, let's say your trusted Specter the Unchained is currently blocking Yamcha Jesselton, and as they are engaged in mortal combat, you then deploy Skadi S2 on top of Jesselton as well. But this is all within Reed's range, so you use her S2 and now the shark and the orca also have fireballs around them that further obliterate Jesselton, and he can't even damage Specter in a way that matters because 1) she leveled HP and 2) she's getting an absolutely unholy amount of healing from Reed's hot balls, so, in short, he'll never have another birthday. This MELTS bosses, but obviously, it's a rather expensive endeavor, necessitating 3 deployment slots dedicated to the bit. But no one said being funny was cheap, and end of the day, it's funny seeing bosses melting down to nothing under what's practically two fire buzzsaws.

Ideal Operators for these strats involve your prim and proper engager, someone tough that can take a hit and also hit hard, like either Specter or Skadi S3, but you can also make this engager a dedicated tough slab of meat like Hoshiguma, and your drop-in assassin with huge damage, like Texas the Omertosa, Surtr S3 (two girls that will appreciate the Arts Fragility Reed can inflict!), Skadi S2, Nearl the Radiant Knight S2, et al. 'Enmity' Operators work as well but you'll not be received the healing, just keep that in mind, but they work splendid as well. Once again, Arts Fragility stacks multiplicatively with Fragile, so break out the ol' Suzuran S3 or, if the boss can be Frozen, Gnosis S3 for some more immensely violent peacekeeping.

That was a lot, but trust me, it becomes second nature once you see it in action once, it just clicks and now you know exactly how to roast that spit.

Woah, look at all the progress we made, it's time to start 8-12:

So, S3, the big flashy and fun explosions that scream "I'm a healer, but," in big red flaming text. This skill does a fair amount of things, actually! First of all, Reed will have multitarget attacks, two per attack, and her attacks during S3 will always 100% of the time inflict Cinder, so that +60% ATK buff she's getting is actually bigger than that, given that she'll always have her final damage increased by 30% Arts Fragility on top of that. What's more, Cinder's CANNOT expire for as long as the skill is active, and now have the additional effect of inflicting a Damage Over Time effect that deals 60% of Reed's Attack as Arts damage (so, again, amplified by Arts Fragility). And, of course, as we all know and love, if an enemy dies while having the Cinder's effect during the skill duration, they explode for 140% damage in a 1.7 tile radius, and enemies damaged by these explosions, you guessed it, also become inflicted with Cinder.

That's a lot going on, but it's also pretty self-explanatory once you lay it out like that. Ace detectives might have gleaned something from this river of letters: Cinder is a very strong effect. Cinder lets you deal more damage, take less damage, and receive more healing, since Reed's healing is based on damage dealt. S3 takes Cinder to the next level: Guaranteed proc, now with a DoT, and will never expire until the end of the skill. Not only that, but the multitarget makes it easier to inflict more and more enemies with Cinder, it's truly a fire gone out of control, for the enemy, anyways. S3 lends itself to mob control and killing large crowds of enemies with the power of friendship, but do not neglect its utility in engaging with troublesome elites and bosses! While S2 is her premiere boss-killing tool, it required set-up, deployment slots and tiles you might not necessarily have in high-end content, and in these situations where the boss isn't the only issue, but you also have to deal with an overall dangerous map that's threatening as a whole, S3 may just be the perfect tool to have a more balanced and yet still very potent approach.

This is what makes the Flame Shadow such a fun unit! Your skills are not really locked by circumstance, and they can be used with several different objectives and goals in mind, depending on what the rest of your team is and who your enemy or what the challenge of the map is. With her incredible adaptability and wide array of applications, Reed the Flame Shadow absolutely shines and can be a core part of any team.

[freckliedan]

real talk then-if gender is made up than aren't we all on some level both conforming and defying gender?

i mean, yes and no? man i'm going to get lengthy with this one again. WAIT SIKE. (not fully sike, but imagine this easily twice as long and now you know why i said sike). i was four paragraphs in and remembered the 'no such thing as fish' gender post which expresses those 4 paragraphs way more concisely than I can.

we all know what a fish is even though there's no single universally applicable definition of fish. the same is true of gender. because it is impossible to define with any type of specifics, it is impossible to get a 100% in conforming to gender.

so like. there's a window of tolerence. because man and woman are such broad categories, successful & more complete conformity to a binary gender doesn't mean getting it right all the time. it means displaying nonconformity rarely enough that it's understood as an exception to your usual behavior, sometimes even an exception that further reinforces your status as correctly gender compliant.

so, the closest it gets to a yes is the fact that yes, most people perform gender in ways that are both conforming to and out of alignment with the way that their gender is defined by the collective.

but even in that scenario i have to say most people, because intersex people exist! and different intersex conditions result in development of different primary and secondary sex traits so there's no universal intersex experience but like. some of us never had the option of fitting into either binary/sex gender category to start with.

& the other reason that's a "most people" is because there are plenty of nonbinary people whose gender expression categorically removes us from passing effectively as either gender.

there's no gender FOR me to conform to. if i tried performing womanhood like my sister or manhood like my cousins both options would come across as draglike. i'm not the only person living life like this, either—that's what makes an all statement like yours inaccurate/impossible.

& the other reason for my no in my original yes and no? that's largely something that comes down to semantics for me. not everyone intentionally defies gender, though everyone does definitely fail to conform to gender at times.

wearing makeup is a common form of gender conformity for women. in this example, not wearing makeup is unintentional nonconformity, whether it's because you can't afford it, or were running late and didn't have time, or because you're disabled and lack the motor control to apply it, etc etc. for a woman to choose not to ever wear makeup because of a refusal to opt in is gender defiance.

defiance isn't passive, it's active.

(of makeup: i said common form of gender conformity, because there's definitely contexts in which excess displays of femininity are not rewarded. i'm not expressing this well as it's the middle of the night but @drdemonprince has an excellent article i reccomend reading & is someone whose work i reccomend in general).

the umbrella of gender nonconformity covers both unintentional nonconformity and active defiance, when it's used in discussions. it's a useful umbrella, because it's important to be able to discuss the way gender nonconformity is responded to by those who uphold cishetero patriarchal ideals of gender. because they're not going to ask whether or not it comes from a place of defiance before treating people differently for our gender failures.

(i've used the phrase gender failure multiple times tonight. i can pinpoint the exact reason i use that phrase! the book gender failure by ivan coyote & rae spoon, which i read last year after top surgery. i consider myself someone who has failed at gender, and that's something i think of myself with love and pride).

so: a little bit yes, but mostly no. to say yes feels reductive, but to resoundingly say no to your ask is unfair, considering how long it took me to explain my thoughts in detail, & how much of that no is tied up in semantic disagreement.

[dashielldeveron]

Hi! I absolutely adored your Soulmate Trope series and it inspired me to get into writing fanfics.

The thing is I've been struggling with whether my stories (working on multiple ideas rn) would fall under x reader or OC. They are supposed to be x reader (unspecified name/physical description, and a vague backstory if any) but i've seen some people say that x readers should be as generic as possible, even when it comes to personality.

So since you're one of my favorite fanfic authors, I wanted to reach out and ask you: Where do you draw the line between a reader insert and an OC, especially when it comes to portraying their personality?

Thank you!

disclaimer: there's no set way to do this, but this is what i do for readerfics, having been writing them since 2013.

writing advice incoming.

Specificity about the body is your enemy, especially numerical measurements. They are immediately deniable and can break immersion. "You were a 5'3", petite, blonde woman with small breasts--" No, I'm not. I'm not 5'3". I'm not blonde or petite. Height, weight, body type, hair colour, eye colour--everyone's different. You immediately alienate part of your audience by specifying these things, and even vaguer phrases like having "a great ass" can still be off-putting, bc what if your audience doesn't consider their ass great. The main thing is you don't need to mention physical traits at all. They don't contribute to the plot, generally. So, leave out stuff like "his green eyes looked into your e/c ones" because the colour makes no difference whatsoever. The only real reason to specify about the physicality of the reader is if it's a plot point, such as the whole fic being a comfort story about the burdens of having big boobs or the stigma of having a wing quirk--OR if there is something particularly non-normative about a canon character's body that you're comparing the reader to, and even then you don't want specifics. Here I'm thinking about Levi Ackerman (snk) and how short he is. He's 5'3". Me, personally, I'm 5'9", but to avoid alienating people, I'd say something a bit vauge like "your height difference kept you from looking Levi directly in the eye, but you managed to shoot a glare in his general direction." Like, through that, we get that reader and Levi aren't the same height, but we don't even say who's taller, keeping both taller and shorter readers along for the ride.

2. If you do decide to specify a physical trait for a reader that doesn't necessarily contribute to plot, you want to tag it. I wouldn't worry about fewer people reading your fic bc it "doesn't apply to them," bc for me, there's a sense of shock/breaking immersion if suddenly I am a tiny, tiny blonde woman. But if you tagged short!blonde!reader, then I'm prepared for that. In general, you always want to tag gender.

3. I personally don't use "Y/N" in fics. I come from back in the days when authors would just put __________ in fics for you to imagine your name, and I can't divorce that odd blank from the placeholder. I do, of course, use that interactivefics plugin, and if I really want a character to say our name, then I just say in narration that he does, not in dialogue. This is because seeing the "Y/N" breaks immersion. Reminds us we're in a fic, and that lots of people are reading this, not just you. Makes it feel a bit less special.

4. Reader personality. Listen. Lots of people have lots of opinions on this. Think about what's relevant to your story, the plot, the relationship with other characters. That's the stuff you want to include. If a piece of info doesn't affect any of that, cut it. For instance, in my Soulmate Trope series, reader always has a quirk, but I never specifiy what it is--because it doesn't matter for the plot. I mention that she's good at stealth, because that gets us working with Aizawa, or getting Shigaraki to practise tailing us. And by not specifying what type of stealth work, the audience is left to imagine what parts of stealth they'd be good at, and insert it. And really, when people say they want a generic reader--they're doing the reader character a disservice, because she still has many personality traits--kind, shy, easily flustered, secretive, stubborn, easy to love, keen to fall in love. These are still distinct personality traits, but since this combination of traits tends to be a bit passive, it can feel dull. But even if it feels dull, reader is still the character driving the plot. Like, think about the reader in my Hawks fic, "and i've gotta crow." She's manipulative, violent, impulsive, closed off to love but continually surprised by it, eager to hold grudges, and continually seeing life as a game. Because that's the sort of person who would fake amnesia, going so far as to marry her hot bully as revenge. Reader personality drives the plot: for your reader characters, consider what types of person would get into these situations, what personality traits would help in this situation, and what traits would make everything worse. In Torodoki's route, reader needed to be a bit situationally unaware and bullheaded; Aizawa's route's reader needed to be a professional Yearner; Shinsou's route's reader needed to be an anxious virgin who overthinks everything; Shigaraki's reader needed to be someone chewed up and spit back out just like him--otherwise, these readers wouldn't get into the situations the plot calls for. Personally, if I read a fic with a reader with a personality trait I would never exhibit, but the trait drives the plot, then, of course, I can pretend for the sake of the story. It's fun to imagine yourself being a bit more daring, perhaps, or smoother with flirtation, or more self-destructive. We can always pretend for personality, because it's like acting or roleplaying.

5. This one is super specific to me: specifying clothes/makeup bothers me, mostly because people like to put reader characters in gold, and I am cool-toned and would therefore never wear gold. Or saying something like "silk that clings to your body" what if I hate my body and don't wanna show it off? What then? I tend to not specify what particular shades of a colour that reader is wearing, because then the audience can imagine light or dark, whatever looks better on them, and as for shape/material, if the clothing is not plot relevant (as in, there's not going to be a clothing mishap), then I say something vague like "long and made out of a flowy material that reminded you of a jellyfish." Lets the audience imagine what that looks like for them, since everyone has a difference idea and would know what looks good on them. One time in Soulmate Trope I mention a specific article of clothing is in Aizawa's route, when reader is dressing up to go out with friends but shifts to Aizawa's shower. She's wearing a mostly backless tank top, and the reason we get a description of the cut is because it's plot-relevant: Aizawa places his hand on her bare back, marking her with the pink handprint.

6. If your reader character has a name, then it is not a reader character. It is an OC. It is, of course, acceptable to make the reader character have an in-universe nickname with good reason, such as my reader character in "Viper," who goes by...Viper, to protect her real identity from other mafia members. But if a character has a name name, that's an OC. If you write an OC, do not tag it as readerfic. For me, personally, an easy way to get around this in BNHA fics is to call reader by her hero name--but, of course, those are usually tied to quirks, which, again, may alienate some readers if they don't think they'd have that quirk. You have to decide which you're more willing to have.

7. In the decade+ I've been writing/reading readerfic, these are the things that make me think a character is an OC over a reader character: a name, a specific family dynamic (such as having a single mother and two brothers, especially if those family members are plot-relevant), specific physical traits that do not contribute to the plot, or being born in a long line of special people (think magic users, or something, like a chosen one situation). All of these things have one, main throughline: they're things that a person can't change about themselves, pretty much ever. All of them point to being a bit too different from your audience, and there's nothing they could do to change it. Your audience could learn to dance better, or get shyer, or have the courage to ask that guy out, because those are potential paths of growth in real life. Because they're things that your audience could realistically change about themselves IRL, it's much easier to imagine being that in a fic. It's harder to imagine only living with your mother if you live with both your mom and your dad. It's hard to make up a brother to have in a fic if you don't have one IRL. (though i personally work around some of this by imagining jeff goldblum and emma thompson as my parents in fic, bc my irl parents would NEVER be, like. incredibly cool or super abusive or whatever.)

8. But again! If you don't like any of this advice, ignore it! This comes down to personal preference, and I'm picky! These things are, at the end of the day, just things I personally like. Ultimately, fic is fun. It's not supposed to be a chore. If you think it's easier to go against any of the above, go ahead. It's your art.

i love you v v v much. we are holding hands. i'm immensely flattered that you'd reach out to ask for writing advice; wow. will you tag me in your finished fic??? no pressure, of course!! but i love reading new stories and spreading them around!!! very best of luck to you!!! xx.

[shopcat]

i've actually made this post before somewhere but i'll make it again because i want to 🫡 i think the phrase "slutty little waist" has caused irreparable damage to a lot of people's minds (being dramatic btw) and pushed harmful thinking relating to skinniness = sexiness, even if it's unintentional... intention isn't really the point when imo and ime the way people talk about this so called trait tends to reflect from a mirror of conventionally attractive typical (cis) bodies where the defining feature is thinness/"fitness" -_-

saying that you're really into the typical broad shouldered v-shaped body and tapered waist is not actually like, subversive at all 😭 and on the inverse it's very indicative of the root of this issue that when i like search the phrase on pinterest or whatever i get borderline bodychecking/thinspo content as well where shrink wrapped skinniness has once again become a desirable trait repackaged in false projections of subversiveness/atypicality ... imo it's not necessarily the phrasing here nor the mindset of it all (i Love grab his waist and twirl him around...) but the idea of what that means to some people is really... warped. everyone on earth HAS a waistline and can therefore Have a slutty waist if they so want.

i also think an anatomy refresher is due to be honest because some people are straight up WRONG and i don't think it'll hurt... i study anatomy amateurly as an artist so i'm no expert lol 😭 but ok.

1st of all what people call the "waist" here isn't particularly accurate in a lot of cases. your natural waist is the smallest part of your torso, on some bodies, where it dips in the most, usually under your ribcage/above the hip. what people are usually talking about here are like, hips? the general hip area? (i can see what's happening here because the waistline does usually mark where the "smallness" begins in the typical examples, but it doesn't have to be all \ /-> | | you know.)

your torso is made up of a lot of muscles and fat that sit in different ways, and other than your spine, your hip bone is the only bone in all that meat and helps give shape to your body. i've marked ROUGHLY whereabouts the waistline (red) and hip line (blue) are on these bodies:

in all that is this screepy thing...

who also helps create my second favourite part of the human body (the hip dip <3). it's not lost on me that what a lot of people mean when they talk about this trait looks something like the bottom right figure above, but it doesn't HAVE TO BE... is what i mean. i'm saying all this anatomically because i think it's helpful to know what actually goes on in people's bodies in order to not glorify the single, typical (cis) men's glamourised body type of: shrink wrapped + water deficient + abs + broad shoulders + a pronounced latissimus dorsi (the "dorito" shape) and a tapered waistline that goes straight down. any of these features can be applied to multiple bodies but to focus on the waistline itself is crazy to me because it can look like anything in those images above.

now obv there is nothing WRONG with any of the body types mentioned and you're allowed to like whatever you want but projecting a specific kind of body as the only desirable thing with specific wording and an invisible barrier keeping pretty much every single other person out is... corny and rude and stupid. and pushing skinniness as the only hot thing is obviously harmful and stupid.

and most of all it is WRONG because and i will repeat this until i die: Every body type on earth has a waist, no matter how pronounced or not, and it can be hot or sexy or whatever. if you want. honestly to me the phrase has always applied to any kind of man or woman or oyster and Only applies to the waistline dip, and the beautiful thing about the waistline dip is it can be on any body and fatness is heavily happily included in that o_<✌️also i forgot to say but love handles are literally half of the entire point of living and love handles and wide hips and fat on your hips and stomach in general rules and not only should be included in this phenomenon but ARE... how are you going to have a slutty little waist if there's no love handles to cushion it. idiot. if nothing i've ever said is important let this be ☝️

[mleemwyvern]

hi i’m here to ask about your superhero au

hello and thank you because im about to Go Off

so its set in a modern earthlike world, no minecraft stuff, and of course superheroes and villains are a thing. powers are gotten through an injection of power serum, which is mostly controlled by the government and given out through hero programs. you apply, do the tests and the training, and at the end if you're deemed good enough you get powers and a job as a hero.

powers also come with mutations, aka nonhuman traits, because i will never stop nonhumaning the hermits. a higher dose of serum tends to lead to more extreme mutations. some people believe it's also correlated to stronger powers, but that's not really a thing. especially because the strength of a power is hard to quantify. there's little way to tell what you'll get before you're dosed with serum- it's pretty much random.

power serum is the only way to get superpowers in this world. but the government isn't as good at controlling it as they think they are, and there's a thriving black market for the stuff.

unfortunately, a significant minority of the public don't like mutated people, seeing them as inhuman freaks. the flavour of bigotry varies but it is definitely there, and it sucks.

our heroes: the hermitcraft agency, formed by xisuma to help organize and support anyone with powers. they offer a variety of services from power training, to adaptive devices for mutations, to just a community of powered people. most of the cities heroes work there.

our villains: evil x and helsknight, who believe that power serum shouldn't be as restricted as it is. everyone should be able to get powers. the world would be better if everyone did. if everyone was mutated, it would be hard to hate, right? so, fueled by ex's ability to duplicate objects, they go around injecting anyone they can with the serum. against their will. as you can imagine this is A Problem.

i have developed detailed powers and roles in the world for every single hermit, all life series members, and various other hermit adjacents. currently working my way through empires. including a third bonus villain, xornoth, who has rapidly become a massive problem with his mind-altering abilities.

powers tend to be complex and detailed, because that is enrichment for me. they're often highly specific and have multiple uses.

since it's such a big au i won't describe any specific characters here, but i will drop the current list of them, and i encourage sending asks about individual characters! some have more lore than others but they all have a place. the amount of lore does not necessarily correlate to how insane i am about them. there was a lot of input from friends, especially @12u3ie, @will-falling-fell, and @winchestersinthetardisin221b

Hermits: all 28 of them.

Life Series: all 18 of them.

Empires: Pearl, Gem, False, Joel, Jimmy, Scott, Lizzie, Fwhip, Sausage, Pix (sort of- has a role but no powers)

Other: Zloy, Lyarrah (unpowered), Mrs. Welsknight, Quinn Hills, Jack (of kris and jack)

Villains: Evil X, Hels, Xornoth

[butch-bakugo]

Look y'all, as a person who will 100% take advantage of every chance I get to shit on trump... I gotta point out ablesim in our movement in the form of the whole teasing him for needing a diaper.

Many people; older children, teens, adults and seniors, need to wear diapers at some point in their matured lives and they live with a constant stigma attached to this thing they need. From people assuming they are doing it for kink reasons or cause "their weirdos", assuming they must also be mentally disabled and pull out all the fun mental ablesim/sar, assume they must always stink or must be constantly relieving themselves, assuming their constantly dirty or unable to care for themselves...

Incontinence is something many people deal with and are HEAVILY embarrassed about because of ableism. They feel like they have to hide that a big pad to fully just diapers are something they need and there's nothing to be ashamed about. People who suffer from incontinence don't deserve to be shamed over it.

Here's where we circle back around. Trump needing a diaper for whatever reason is neutral. It's not a funny ha ha baby man needs a diaper moment, it's someone in old age who suffers from incontinence. Is he a really horrifically shitty and bigoted person? Yes. But just cause the villain needs a wheelchair doesn't mean your a-ok to suddenly start calling them a vegetable or a cripple or joking about them getting dumped out their wheelchair and laughing at their helplessness. Just cause you begrudgingly add alittle disclaimer whining about how this only applies to trump and doesn't apply to others who need diapers(not that any of you have. You ignore people with relatively invisible disabilities that aren't stuff like diabetes or autism.), dosent mean that those with incontinence cant see the ableism in your comments.

If you went out of your way to shit on a republican who didn't get sarcasm or had autism and specifically making fun of their autistic traits, as a person with severe autism, I'm going to fucking take offense. Enjoy this quote: "Vengefulness still sours the life of the crowd despite the eye of your ire being on one whoms foul." Aka hate is still hate and can affect the innocent even if you all know it's aimed at a bad person. People with autism are still harmed by your allism even if your aiming it at a really shitty autistic person. I'm not black nor am I fully white but I've been around multiple racist white people who justify calling certain black people the n word "if they act like one" and don't think that's racism. Is that an extreme form? Yes but it's the same rhetoric.

Don't make fun of donald trump for needing a diaper. Needing a diaper or pee pad or anything to help with incontinence isn't funny or embarrassing. Incontinence is a neutral symptom that doesn't make someone good or bad or anything else you attach to it. It's a body process that many people suffer from and it's not funny to make fun of what is often a stigmatized bodily function. When you make fun of one person for having incontinence, you make fun of them all and many have disabilities.

There are so many other funny and embarrassing things you could make fun of trump for, like his fake tan or shitty toupee. You could spend that energy on talking about his many crimes and bigotries. You could talk about his scams and schemes that fell through hilariously. You don't need to make fun of incontinence. You don't need to make fun of people who need adult diapers. You don't need to drag many disabled people though the mud to make fun of donald trump.

Take a different route and ask yourself why you find a body function, which should be normalized and not further made fun of, a good target for harassment. There's so much there to work with, pick something that isn't already stigmatized. I promise abled people, it's very fucking easy.

You can say I'm taking this too seriously and it's not that deep but disabled people have asked for YEARS that y'all don't use people's disabilities or health problems as the basis for their punching bags cause it just normalizes that talk towards every person with that disability who pisses you off. If you can see how it's not ok to make fun of someone for being diabetic due to their weight because it's based in fatphobia, you can see how it's not ok to make fun of someone for needing diapers due to incontinence because it's based on ablesim. If you agree that it's wrong to misgender/be transphobic towards someone because they are a bad person who happens to be trans then you can agree that it's wrong to be ableist towards someone because they are a bad person who happens to be disabled. If you lose the ability to not be bigoted towards someone when they piss you off or do something bad then your just a bigot whose nice first. I'm not a trump supporter and I'm not saying we should go easy on him but I am saying there are so many other things to call this oversized orange with a comb over that ARNT based in a stigmatized health condition faced by many people that is so stigmatized, they feel mortified when someone finds out they have incontinence.

Abled people/people without incontinence are legally required to reblog. Y'all never listen to disabled voices when we point ableism in the community.

[gardenofthearkane]

Personal Gnosis is a very important aspect of spirit and entity work and is heavily based on personal experience and research. You may hear practitioners speak on "SPGs" and "UPGs"; a "personal gnosis" is a personal 'fact' about a deity, spirit or entity; it may be their accent or their personality or the offerings they enjoy or something else. It is quite simply a personal 'fact' about this deity, spirit or entity that the practitioner knows through interaction rather than through mythology or lore or speaking with other practitioners.

The slightly confusing (but also kind of cool) aspect is that these facts don't have to be seen as 'true' by EVERY practitioner who works with that deity, spirit or entity and it'll still be completely valid (as long as it's not completely removing the spirit, entity or deity from their source)

UPG - Unverified Personal Gnosis.

An Unverified Personal Gnosis is a 'fact' about a deity, spirit or entity that a practitioner knows to be true that may only apply to that one specific practitioner (according to them at least). An example, to help explain, may be that Lucifer appears to practitioner A as having white hair and a Floridian accent, to Practitioner A that is a fact, and no-one has any right or place to tell them otherwise. However Lucifer may appear to other practitioners as having other accents (like an Italian accent) and different coloured hair, the length might differ too! It is an "unverified personal gnosis" because it only applies to that one, unique, deity/practitioner relationship and might not necessarily be mentioned in their source myth.

SPG - Shared Personal Gnosis

Now slightly different to a UPG - this is a fact about a deity, spirit or entity that applies across multiple deity/practitioner relationships, its something multiple practitioners view as fact. Following our Lucifer example: Lucifer may appear to multiple practitioners as having long, dark hair and commonly wearing a leather jacket; because multiple practitioners can "confirm" it, that's what makes it an SPG. However, SPGs do not necessarily (have to) apply to EVERY deity/practitioner relationship—so while practitioners B, C, D and E all see Lucifer as "tall, dark haired and handsome", practitioner A may still see him as a white haired surfer—neither is "wrong" or "fake" and SPGs are in no way "better" or "more correct" than UPGs just because it's a shared 'fact'.

VPG - Verified Personal Gnosis.

Unlike UPG and SPG, Verified Personal Gnosis CAN be verified by the deity, spirit or entity's source myth. For instance Artemis being associated with bees is a verified personal gnosis.

How can this work?

It is important to remember that deities and most spirits and entities, do not abide by human laws—they can sound and appear to practitioners however they please, they are not bound to one physicality, nor one 'role' - they may appear parental or formal to some and friendly and casual to others! Deities and most spirits and entities are multifaceted Beings meaning they have many "faces" and it's one of the reasons why they appear differently to different practitioners.

It is VERY important that you mention whether something you share is UPG/SPG because it can be very confusing especially to beginner practitioners

Lore vs UPGs

Mythology and Lore is one of the few ways we can accurately research a deity, spirit or entity, and important points about them will be true - Goddess Sif will appear will golden hair, God Hephaestus will appear disabled - these are physical traits that are key to who they are and their stories, so while Hephaestus may change his hair or face shape - he will almost certainly appear with leg braces to some practitioners or with a cane or support of some sort. This applies more to personality as well, and can somewhat help you identify whether someone is not necessarily being honest about an interaction they had with a deity, spirit or entity—For instance it would be extremely rare for King Haides to view someone as "more than" Queen Persephone (we've all seen the tiktoks), God Apollon to be driving the sun chariot because no where in accurate and true Greek myth does it mention Apollon replacing Helios, and GoddessHekate will never help to harm or curse children (this videos have been see too)etc. While UPGs are valid and should always be respected - they usually align within a deity, spirit or entity's recorded mythology or lore.

Note: No practitioner can accurately determine another practitioner's relationship with a deity, spirit or entity as fake, because that's just not how it works—however if someone speaks about their interactions with a spirit, entity or deity and it vastly differs from their mythology or lore or just doesn't sound that believable, I would be wary. This can also help you recognise tricksters (if tricksters are apart of your belief system)!

If you have any questions and such feel free to shoot me a message or comment down below!

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Neo Champion Nate

Who wants to bet that someone on Reddit will argue that actually this proves Nate is the real protagonist of BW2, because this Shiny Haxorus is only obtained when you complete your Pokedex, which could only be done if he did all the stuff with the legendary Pokemon. Who wants to bet me? I already won by the way.

General Overview Nate finally gets his alt, and all of his pent up fury at the world is released, in the form of a black Haxorus that is out for blood.  Usually I try to be somewhat thorough in my rundown of a pair's talents, but I'm going to cut to the chase on this one.  240% sync damage on grid, his new Circle effect can give up to 40% bonus move and sync damage depending on Unovan count, Field EX Role for a multiplicative 50% bonus.  Effectively, 420% sync damage.  By himself.  For free.  All conditionals are absurdly easy to apply.  This is all you need to know about Nate to justify his existence.

But wait, there's more!  Nate has a ton of interesting traits, including an AoE buddy move that unfortunately doesn't get no-penalty effect, but is 300BP and therefore a second nuke.  He also has the new Circle effect, which is basically a second Master Passive, but it works for sync too.  Nate, by himself on an all-Unova team, is +90% physical damage dealt, and -45% physical damage taken.  Like.  Free.  For completely free.  He always crits, caps attack on first trainer move, and gets that Buddy move back every time the team uses sync.  All of this around a very proficient rate of boosting PMUN for himself.  His role is take first sync, AoE explode sides, then fire off a compressed Buddy move with sync strength, and with a rotation or Circle -> sync -> Buddy and a full Unova team, gets 200% bonus damage on said Buddy move. There are sync nukes with less power than that.

So what are the flaws?  Well...he's Nemona. You know how Nemona operates on burst damage, then has nothing once used up? NC Nate is the same. You sync, you Buddy move, then you wait for someone to sync. Scale Shot is atrocious damage. And with Circles being 2MP and an impermanent field effect, this starts to cut into damage. Nate isn't built for the long haul that way. He needs partners. And outside of Iris and C!Iris? His only Dragon-type partner is BT Leon (or BP Zinnia if you want to be cute). Every other dragon is special. And it's rare that you want two different offensive types in a match. Not that he can't make it happen for off-typing, but you get the idea. His ideal partners aren't plentiful. But in truth? I kinda like these flaws. Every pair has to have some kind of limitation, and this feels more aligned to interesting teambuilding than other top meta pairs. Like, because of the limitations in play? If he isn't ending the fight after his Buddy move, his partner is picking up some slack. And Unova-specific boosts with Dragon Zone means base Iris is contributing. And that's just great. I love when a really good pair drops and actually brings up the lower tier with it.

EX, Role, and Move Level? Nate is a fascinating case.  Move Level is, I think, justifiable at 1/5, if you're going for more supportive effects.  You know.  Like I would.  But you'd still want the EX and Role, because Field role is huge for his potential support.  It's what ratchets Iris up to absurd levels of power.  Obviously, 3/5 is when Nate goes off the rails and becomes a killing machine.

Team 1: NC Nate, C!Iris, Hilbert Nate and Iris are the obvious pair, as both contribute bonkers Dragon-type damage to the team.  C!Iris has the added benefit of being an offensive debuffer, giving Nate the defensive backbone to keep trucking.  Iris' main problem is her own setup.  She relies on Atk/crit support, and for Unova, there's...really only one option.  Hilbert.  Hilbert is nigh-required for a full Unova team, due to C!Iris' needs.  You could just ignore that, though.  Bring whoever you want and let Iris serve as debuffer/flinch bot.  Not like Nate will need the help.

Team 2: NC Nate, Iris, H!Caitlin Now, if you are insane like me, this is at least worth discussing.  Base Iris can make use of all of Nate's effects, making her a surprisingly fun choice for a 1/5 Nate.  H!Caitlin supplies all the Atk/Spd the team needs, as well as some defensive backbone, and full Unova privileges.

Team 3: NC Nate, SS N, H!Caitlin Okay, now let's talk some bullshit.  Off-type is a possibility for Nate, given the raw damage output he can provide.  One really, really fun option is SS N.  SS N operates on a two-turn rotation of attacks, and relies on hitting a denial on sides to succeed.  Off-type, this is incredibly hard without a lot of support.  Support in the form of +90% move damage with potential PMUN stacks.  H!Caitlin is chosen for defensive backbone, speed control, and the last bit of Atk that N needs.  Also just because she is optimal.

Team 4: NC Nate, Colress, S!Hilda/Lenora "I don't care about any of that nerd shit!  This is Nate's time to shine, I want him to do maximum damage!"  Colress, you're up bro.  -6 Def by first sync, GG EZ.  You can throw in Summer Hilda if you want super good defensive bulk and Topsy Turvy, or you can throw in Lenora for added Leer and some team healing.  Either or.

Final Thoughts Nate is one of those Strikers who embodies the damage type he was born into.  His sync is immaculate.  The added effects of the new Circle, the Master passive, and the Zone are all tremendous, and would serve him well regardless of his raw power.  When combined, the man is a menace.  I can think of little to fault Nate with, in truth.

[picturejasper20]

Why does “humanizing” a character always have to imply making them more likeable/sympathetic?

Well, from what i get the concept of humanizing in writing comes from the idea of making your readers/viewers start seeing a character that is ¨the other¨ as a person with their own motives and desires. They start to become someone who has feelings and sometimes the audience can see themselves into.

This can be done for multiple reasons. To give your characters more dimension and feel richer than just having only one character trait, to tackle an specific lesson or theme, for plot... it depends on the story. Most of the time this is required for characters who are going to get a redemption arc later in the plot so people can see what lead them to make the wrong choices, why are they still doing it and how they could get better/ out of that situation. It makes you think ¨this is someone who has fallen in a dark path because they grew in a terrible toxic enviroment. Maybe they could get out of that if another person shows them the right path¨

However, feel like people have this misconception that humanizing a character means that the writer has to make them sympathetic in some way when it could be other things like the character having a hobby outside their ¨evilness¨, making them care about their friends or falling in love with someone. I do not think humanizing always has to equal to being sympathetic because an antagonist can still be terrible and be their own person.

For example: A classic joke from Amphibia is the rest of the characters and the viewer finding out that Captain Grime likes playing the harp. This isn’t meant to make the character tragic, it’s meant to be funny and somewhat surprising at the same because you wouldn’t expect a rough warrior guy like Grime having a hobby like that. It shows that there is more to him that the viewers assumed to know.

I think Craig McCracken does a lot in his shows where villains/antagonists have vibrant and unique personalities. It’s easy to distinguish who is who because they act different from each other. Some may get redemption arcs while others don’t. Lord Hater is a good example of this because he has his own issues and dreams while still remaining bad most of the show.

Hell, don’t be surprised if there are people who prefer Lord Hater over Wander and Sylvia, the main show’s heroes. This is because they may find Lord Hater more relatable or funny. The show has several episodes that he is the main protagonist instead of Wander and Sylvia.

There are times the antagonist doesn’t need to be humanized because they are supposed to be a monster or an evil entity that is threating the protagonists. This is usually done for horror movies and monsters of the week characters. A monster from Silent Hill doesn’t need this because its supposed to be something you have to be scared off, not relate too. Your monster of the week is rarely going to get serious development since they are expected to appear and die in the same episode, this isn’t always the case though.

It all depends on the character and the story. Another thing worth of adding is that this can be applied to protagonists as well by making do bad choices, giving them real flaws, backstory, etc.

[stinkyeyeball]

Here's a rant nobody wanted, but I just rewatched The Addams Family (1991) and I have THOUGHTS about why their family dynamic is so comforting to me and many others.

Firstly, even though Addams blood has deep significance in the film, the expectations that often come with family do not apply. Fester is away for multiple years, he makes the family briefly homeless, he deeply betrays those who trust him, and yet he is welcomed back into the family again and again. Also, not only blood relatives are welcomed in; it's clear that even others are welcomed with open arms as long as they do not judge any member of the family. For example, this is seen with Margaret, ex-wife of the Addams lawyer turned Cousin It's partner, being treated the same as any other family member at the end of the film. In the end, what makes the family is not blood, or amassed riches, or a feeling of loyalty; it is the deep care the characters feel for each other. When the family loses their house, it's not concern for money that makes them miserable (derogatory), but for Gomez a hurt over losing his brother once again and for Morticia a concern for her depressed husband. Obviously there's an element of privilege here as well in that they have never needed to care about money, but it's also such a strength that it's no surprise that most other relationships end up orbiting that dynamic as foils or being sucked in, the characters becoming Addamses themselves.

Secondly, I really love the way the film portrays the characters' various oddities. Sure, the movie is overwhelmingly white and there are some stereotypes that aren't great. But just focusing on the endless quotable one-liners they roll out, a very specific approach shines through. Commonly "bad" descriptions such as "slob" or "evil" or "maniac" are embraced as part of the characters' identities, inseparable from them as people if one should even want to attempt it. It's not hidden, or explained away, it's just there along with everything else. When the family lose their home, the office worker asks Morticia if her husband is a loafer, a hopeless layabout, a shiftless dreamer? With a sad look she responds, "Not anymore." Nurturing each other's interests and personal development is a core value of the family, and she's not worried that he's not providing - she's worried that he's stagnated in a way that makes him suffer (that's her job, after all).

Adding on to that point, even disability is portrayed in a very beautiful way. Cousin It not speaking in a way we understand as watchers is never a gag, and we see him interacting with others and developing a seemingly well-functioning relationship to Margaret (who also, by the way, develops from a stereotypical nagging wife to an Addams). Thing is able to communicate perfectly well with the family through sign language and sheer personality, and the family cherishes him and shows him great respect. He is never tossed around as a gag or ignored because he cannot verbalise. The thought would be outlandish. What I especially love, though, is the way these characters are also treated not only as equals, but as fully fleshed out personalities. The thing is an grinder dad friend who stutters when he's stressed and likes to mess with Fester. Cousin It is a great dancer who comes up with wild ideas and listens to rock. This is not to say that they would not have these traits were it not for the Addamses, but the family makes room for them, sees them and loves the characters for them.

This got so long and there's so much more I could say, but whatever. As a queer, most likely autistic, generally weird person who's fallen off the curve due to mental issues it is just indescribably comforting to have a place to go where I have no doubt I'd be fully accepted, no raised eyebrows or passive aggressive comments to fear. Even if it's fictional, knowing that such characters and such love can exist becomes real in its own way.

[nighthazerpg]

Patch Roundup Nov 5th

About two months of small updates that I’ve been documenting in the Discord channel!

September 14th:

I forgot to actually put the definition of the Sniping tag in the doc I fixed that now oops

September 21st:

Rallying Presence does not stack with itself

Pistol Technique was referring to a -2 dice penalty that was changed to Interference, and also where that penalty is coming from is now specified since multiple people have pointed this out thinking that it was referring to the close range penalties. (Also specified that the close range penalty does not apply.)

Added Audio Armour and a Brand to Earbuds

You can now purchase Security upgrades for your vehicles. No longer do you have to do it yourself. #RightToRepair? Sorta?

Specified that Implants you make in your garage have the Homecooked Brand, because that's the definition of Homecooked

Raised the price of the ASL Scuttlebug by 0.5kb.

Specified that drones using only Onboard Intelligence don't contribute to Crosstalk. These two measures are largely to add a speedbump to the cheese strategy of flooding the battlefield with Crosstalk by dropping 8 roombas. I'm still thinking about ways to preclude this, but for now, a 0.5kb price hike shouldn't hurt too much if you have one or two Scuttlebugs that you're doing something genuinely creative and weird with, but becoming the Pied Piper of Curry's Electrical becomes a much less efficient use of money

September 27th:

Added Equestrian Sign Language to the language learning options

October 2nd:

Added Gryphish Sign Language

Spelled out some Language rules on the Diplomacy section of the Infiltration tab - this is mostly just codifying things that are either present elsewhere (Citizenship determines starting language) or inferred from other descriptions (what "Basic" and "Fluent" mean), or common sense (how a sign language works).

Added some Endangered Languages in Appendix D. Hardly a complete list. Here's a bone for you, lore hounds

Trait: Dose Monkey! You lived in the danger zone of a man-made environmental disaster, damaging your health and giving you some measly compensation

October 14th:

New Implant: Shield Compartment! Literally just an Antiscan Pack in your leg.

New Scar options: Added gaining a Phobia for a Spirit Scar, and gaining an Allergy for a Resolve scar. Strictly speaking Scars can be whatever you want, but no harm expanding the list of suggestions!

October 25th:

Added the Addiction trait, and the matching Scar that gives you it. As such, the Junkie trait is now considered deprecated and will be removed if nobody complains

Added functionality to the Zapp Generator to power Deployable items when both are fitted to an exosuit (taking up a slot for the generator and another for the deployable). In accordance with this, a few things are being shuffled in definition:

LODAR Spotter has been moved to passive items. You can just use it passively.

Mounting Platform has a specific carveout that it doesn't work on an exosuit. Your bipod has to be on the ground.

Laser Microphone has been moved to miscellaneous and specifies that it needs a stationary surface to work. It makes more sense that it doesn't have the power draw that would require a zapp generator on an exo, but also using it on an exo is pretty sub-ideal anyway.

November 4th:

Clearance rules had an error where one line of the old version was pasted over a different line of the new version which both covered up some of it and also put contradictory rules in place so that's fixed oops

Cleaned up a few random typos and formatting errors

Added the definition of Botch to the How to Play page because it comes up before being mentioned in Crafting

[selflessanatta]

The Advantages of Meditation as Documented by Leading Scientists, https://selflessanatta.com/the-advantages-of-meditation-as-documented-by-leading-scientists/

New Post has been published on https://selflessanatta.com/the-advantages-of-meditation-as-documented-by-leading-scientists/

The Advantages of Meditation as Documented by Leading Scientists

There is a physical, identifiable process in the brain that separates experienced meditators from those who are not as experienced.

Very experienced meditators report feelings of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when experiencing life as if everything is new and fresh.

They report a lack of disturbing thoughts, and their minds are peaceful, their outlook happy.

In short, very experienced meditators exhibit all the signs everyone, everywhere, is seeking.

And this is backed by modern science.

Daniel Goleman | Big Think

Co author of Altered Traits (named after the 1980 Blockbuster Altered States) with Richard Davidson.

The key takeaway I get from the above video is how they identified a specific brainwave pattern, the gamma wave, that only shows up in very experienced meditators.

Buddhist meditators call this “Beginners Mind,” or Shoshin, which is ironic because no beginner experiences it.

Scientists freely admit they have no idea what this is.

What Daniel Goleman concludes is that advanced meditators do live in a different mind reality than most people.

Call it enlightenment, call it a higher level of consciousness, call it what you will.

There is clearly a mental and emotional state that rises above the ordinary that can only be reached through many, many hours of meditation.

Further confirmation comes from the following video.

Meditation’s Impact on the Brain | Documentary Clip

For more information go to https://www.ajoyfulmind.com/

Anil Seth and the Forefront of Neuroscience

The consensus of modern neuroscience says I’m hallucinating me, and you are hallucinating you.

Do you find that idea unsettling? Watch the video below, multiple times if necessary to absorb its message.

(Anil Seth, I salute you! Everything I understand about neuroscience I owe to you. You are a Giant who’s shoulders I stand on.

The Long version is even better.

How does the collection of cells, neurons, and brain parts generate consciousness?

David Chalmers calls this the Hard Problem of Consciousness.

The fields of neuroscience and philosophy are converging in this area.

Meditators will show them the way.

With practiced meditation, you can see and experience these realizations firsthand.

No need to take anyone else’s word for it.

The Gamma Wave and the Rubicon of 24/7 Meditation

In the first video, Daniel Goleman openly admitted that scientists don’t know what they are looking at and how this sustained gamma wave brain state comes to pass.

Here is my theory.

See Object Meditation: Tibet’s Great Contribution to Buddhism

When practitioners meditate often, particularly when engaged in object meditation, they develop a large number of mental disciplines that they take with them outside of the meditation session.

By far, the most impactful mental discipline I took on was applying opponents and utilizing the Sword of Wisdom.

It’s a fancy way of saying that I learned to cut off negative thoughts before they triggered other negative thoughts that polluted my mind.

When something occurs that triggers an angry response, I immediately call up the many reasons not to become angry, distract my mind from the stimulus, and bring on other opponents like compassion if some person is the trigger.

When I see someone with greater wealth, attainments, fame, or anything else I might desire, if jealousy arises, I immediately remind myself of the benefits of rejoicing for their good fortune.

Whenever something occurs that I consider undesirable, I immediately remind myself it is a result of my past actions, and I stop the downward spiral into victim thinking.

Since events that trigger anger, jealousy, or delusion happen thousands of times per day, these mental disciplines become an extended meditation.

Plus, the rigorous application of opponent forces keeps the mind pure, peaceful, and undisturbed.

Gamma waves are the brain state of an undisturbed mind focused on virtue.

Eckhart Tolle describes the pain body. Heading off a pain-body episode is the point of applying opponents and utilizing the Sword of Wisdom.

Eckhart Tolle’s advice is priceless.

The Sword of Wisdom is actually a group of mental disciplines that are all utilized the same way.

They put out fires when they are a spark before they become a raging inferno.

When these mental disciplines become engrained, practitioners find themselves engaged in mediation all the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This greatly accelerates a practitioner’s progress.

The experience of meditation is no longer confined to the formal meditation session.

That’s when meditators cross the Rubicon, develop gamma wave brain states and their mental and emotional makeup is forever changed.

John C. Lilly the first scientist to explore consciousness.

John C. Lilly invented the float tank.

When John C. Lilly invented the float tank, he was a scientist who wanted to explore what would happen if consciousness was completely isolated from outside stimuli.

He set up an experiment, collected data, and reported his results.

He wrote Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer, which is still available for reprint.

He intentionally made the first few chapters nearly academically impenetrable. After that, the book gets very, very interesting.

He was the first scientist to give a good report on the advantages of meditation and how it impacts the mind.

My Personal Scientific Exploration of Meditation

I spent many hours in float tanks practicing meditation in total sensory deprivation.

When I first started, I had no particular agenda other than to see what would happen, similar to John C. Lilly.

What I discovered frightened me.

There is an unfathomable amount of garbage fermenting in the subconscious mind.

Parallel versus Serial processing

Your brain is a powerful parallel processor.

It processes thousands upon thousands of feelings and thoughts simultaneously, all day, and all night when you are not in Delta sleep.

Your consciousness is a serial processor working on top of the parallel one.

Consciousness presents the most important (highly emotionally charged) of these parallel ideas to the perceptual field that “You” identify with.

This presentation is sequential; thus you experience a “stream of consciousness.”

Why is this important?

Because 99% or more of your mental activity is happening behind the scenes, beneath the level of your conscious awareness.

These feelings and thoughts motivate most of your behavior and determine your moods.

Ignore what’s happening in your subconscious mind at your peril.

Weeding the garden of my mind

When I discovered the reality of my own mind, I suddenly became highly motivated to clean it up.

Once I realized I had thousands of poisonous thoughts taking root in my mind, I knew I had to do something.

Fortunately, I had been previously exposed to Lamrim, so I knew of a method for weeding my mental garden.

I devoted several hundred hours to practicing it.

It works.

Lamrim Meditations

Practicing Lamrim Meditations changed my life. It can change yours, too.

The New Meditation Handbook from Tharpa Publications, production of the New Kadampa Tradition:

The New Meditation Handbook is a practical guide to meditation that teaches us how to make ourself and others happy by developing inner peace, and in this way making our lives more meaningful. Without inner peace there is no real happiness at all. Problems, suffering and unhappiness do not exist outside the mind; they are feelings and thus part of our mind. Therefore, it is only by controlling our mind that we can permanently stop our problems and make ourself and others truly happy. The twenty-one Buddhist meditation practices presented in this book are actual methods to control our mind and experience lasting inner peace. This extremely practical guide is an indispensable handbook for those seeking happiness and meaning in their lives.

This one book, more than any other, is responsible for changing my life.

I also own the three-volume set The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, an extended study on Lamrim.

I’m into it.

The books are merely a guide. It’s the practice; it’s doing the meditations that change your heart and your life.

Practice, practice, practice.

Buying the book merely for intellectual knowledge is a waste of time.

Understanding gets you nowhere.

Feelings lead to your destination.

The original Lamrim sequence was prepared by the Buddhist Master Atisha (982–1054). It was later updated by Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) and translated by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (1931–2022).

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso– 1931–2022, RIP. You were the bridge between our cultures. I owe you everything. I felt your Love. Thank you.

I request one last Blessing: Please, find me in the Bardo and guide me on my journey. I will navigate by the Power of your Radiant Light.

Meditation Basics

The book starts with a brief overview of what mediation is and why the handbook focuses on virtuous objects.

See Object Meditation: Tibet’s Great Contribution to Buddhism

Vajrayāna Buddhism is prevalent in Tibet, and it’s the form of meditation I practice.

They take object meditation to the extreme.

It’s called object meditation, but I don’t focus my attention on things.

The “object” of meditation is a virtue or, more specifically, the feelings that arise when I think about virtue.

In the meditations, I start with a contemplation, and when the feeling arises, I hold onto that feeling for as long as I can, hours when I have the concentration for it.

If I lose the feeling, I return to the contemplation, generate the feeling again, and then hold it.

I became well-practiced at generating and holding virtuous feelings in my heart.

So will you.

What is Virtue?

The Vajrayāna Buddhists have a simple test for virtue.

A virtuous object causes the meditator to develop a peaceful mind when concentrated on it.

If we concentrate on an object that disturbs our mind, like anger, jealousy, or attachment, then the object is non-virtuous.

The entire point of meditation in the Vajrayāna tradition is to attain peace of mind.

Identifying Virtue doesn’t take complex edifices of reasoning like Stoicism.

Virtue is revealed by a peaceful mind.

More Scientists Discussing Meditation

I don’t agree with 100% of what every scientist says about meditation. Many have only a passing familiarity with the process and don’t actually practice it.

Many who do meditate have not taken it as far as I have, and certainly not as far as monks and nuns who’ve devoted their lives to the practice.

However, these people know science, and what they say about meditation is backed up by data.

Lots of data.

You can’t discount that completely.

Andrew Huberman

Andrew Huberman is one of the most brilliant and insightful scientists working with the Mind today. From his website:

Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning.

Think Big

I am a fan of the Think Big project.

The video below is one of their better ones.

Mindfulness is about speeding up our mental processes.

During my awakening, I increased my mental processing by 50% to 80%.

It’s a real thing.

See: What I Felt When I Won the Lottery

~~wink~~

Anatta

[mmorgdude]

Free relational database development and sql programming

Free relational database development and sql programming how to#

Free relational database development and sql programming software#

The result of this analysis is a ‘preliminary specifications’ document. By taking the ‘data requirements document,’ further analysis is done to give meaning to the data items, e.g., define the more detailed attributes of the data and define constraints if needed. The requirements document contains a concise and non-technical summary of what data items will be stored in the database, and how the various data items relate to one another. In consultation with all potential users of the database, a database designer’s first step is to draw up a data requirements document. The steps can be summarized as follows: Requirements specification -> Analysis -> Conceptual design -> Implementation Design-> Physical Schema Design and Optimisation

Free relational database development and sql programming software#

The waterfall model can be applied to database design theory as effectively as it is applied to other software engineering theory. Adherence to a ‘waterfall development model’ ensures quality software, which is ‘complete,’ ‘efficient,’ ‘usable,’ ‘consistent,’ ‘correct’ and ‘flexible.’ These traits are also some of the core underpinnings of a well-built database. The steps in developing an application can be represented as a linear sequence where each step in the sequence is a function, which passes its output to its successor function. Databases & the Software Development Lifecycle say that database modeling strives for a “nonredundant, unified representation of all data managed in an organization.” By following the database/software development lifecycle methodology, and by using the data models, the database design goals are fulfilled and will minimize the disadvantages. One benchmark of a good database is one which is complete, integral, simple, understandable, flexible and implementable. Since the database is one logical repository, even a small error can damage the entire database and reduce the integrity of the data.

Free relational database development and sql programming how to#

More extensive knowledge of how to use the database is required, thus making the database system less user-friendly than traditional file systems. If there are shortcomings to database systems, its that much more powerful and sophisticated software is needed to control the database and designing the software and database can be extremely time-consuming. There are more control and accountability over how the data is managed because the data all resides in one database. One of the most significant benefits of databases is that data can be shared or secured among users or applications. When data is allowed to be duplicated, more maintenance and system resources are required to ensure that data is always integral. When data is allowed to be duplicated, errors can happen if one instance of the data is altered and another instance remains the same. Nonduplication of data is one way of maintaining the integrity of the data. The database software can interact with all the data in the database. Another advantage of the database approach is that, because data is located in one single database, data in different physical locations need not be duplicated. With database systems, it need only be specified what must be done, the DBMS (Database Management System) does the rest. Organizing data in single logical repository allows for easy manipulation and querying of the data, in contrast with traditional file systems where the programmer must specify what and how the data retrieval is done. What this means is that although the data may be spread across multiple physical files, the database conveys the data as being located in a single data repository. One of the critical features of a database system is that data is stored as a single logical unit. The database system approach to data management overcomes many of the shortcomings of the traditional file system approach. By the end of this tutorial, you will know about databases, advantages of databases system over the regular file system, the steps of a database design process, software development lifecycle, qualities of a well-built database, relations and relationships, data integrity, and more. Here is a step by step approach to designing and implementing a database in your organization, using hypothetical data from a sweet shop case study. Databases are increasingly critical for the medtech / life sciences sector. Check out my related article "How did the modern relational database come to be?" which is currently trending in Big Data and follow me for daily articles on technology, digital marketing, psychology and pharmaceuticals.Ĭheck me out at Database Design and Implementation applies to whatever industry you are in.

[harryzhangs]

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